January 28, 1952:
An exhibition of Egyptian writing from the earliest times to the present day opens today (January 28) at the Brooklyn Museum. It will remain on view through April 6.

The exhibition includes not only specimens of hieroglyphs in stone and on papyrus, the ancient forerunner of paper, but also writing equipment such as palettes which still contain cakes of ink showing signs of use by scribes some three thousand years ago. Inkwells, knives for cutting papyrus and burnishers for smoothing its surface are also shown. Sculptures of early scribes and other material illustrating the life of a scribe give an idea of the importance of a man who could read and write in ancient Egypt where the great mass of inhabitants was illiterate.

Most of the pieces shown are from The Brooklyn Museum’s Collection, but objects were lent to the exhibition by the following: Detroit Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, the Walters Art Gallery of Baltimore, and Mr. Michael Abemayer.
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Coincident with the opening of the exhibition, The Brooklyn Museum announces the publication of series 2 of “People of the Black Land,” for young people of high school age. This series which consists of four leaflets discusses in simple terms the main characteristics of Egyptian writing and language, the nature of Egyptian writing material and the life and education of the scribe.

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The Brooklyn Museum Archives maintains a collection of historical press
releases. Many of these have been scanned and made available on our Web
site. The releases range from brief announcements to extensive articles;
images of the original releases have been included for your reference.
Please note that all the original typographical elements, including
occasional errors, have been retained. Releases may also contain errors
as a result of the scanning process. We welcome your feedback about
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For select exhibitions, we have made available some or all of the
informative text panels written by the curator or organizer. Called
"didactics," these panels are presented to the public during the
exhibition's run, and we reproduce them here for your reference and
archival interest. Please note that any illustrations on the original
didactics have not been retained, and that the text may contain errors
as a result of the scanning process. We welcome your feedback about
corrections.

For select exhibitions, we have made available some or all of the
objects from the Brooklyn Museum collection that were in the
installation. These objects are listed here for your reference and
archival interest, but the list may be incomplete and does not contain
objects owned by other institutions or lenders.

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